City workers get ready to bargain as collective agreements near expiration date

One day in early October, the heads of four City of Regina union locals met in the firefighters’ association boardroom to discuss the common struggle ahead.

All of their members — 2,323 city employees — will see their collective agreements expire on Dec. 31. Kevin Lucier, who leads ATU Local 588 representing transit operators, said the four presidents updated each other on their preparations for upcoming negotiations. He said it’s wise to present a united front.

“We’re just sort of starting now,” said Lucier. “There’s going to be some benefit in communications with the rest to see where everybody is, what everyone is asking for.” Richel Nixon of CUPE Local 7 feels the same way. “We are very supportive of each other’s concerns and will continue to work together to bring any shared concerns to our respective bargaining tables,” she wrote in an email response.

The union locals have begun surveying their members to settle on priorities for bargaining. Securing pay increases in a tough economic environment is a major concern for many.“My goal at the conclusion of negotiations is to secure enhancements to the established collective agreement language and, of course, increases to wages and benefits,” wrote Maria Kotsetas, president of the city’s largest union — CUPE Local 21 — which represents 1,544 city employees.The fourth collective agreement set to expire covers the 272 members of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 181. A fifth agreement, for the 306 members of the Regina Civic Middle Management Association, expired in January of this year. A push for arbitration has hit an impasse and has been bogged down since May, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.

The standoff could be a signal for what’s ahead at the other bargaining tables. “Seeing them having a little bit of difficulty does raise a few flags,” said Lucier, “but again, we’re each going to have our own difficulties anyway.”The city’s human resource department did not make anyone available for an interview. Its director, Steve Eger, noted in a statement that “historically the city has successfully negotiated collective agreements.”

Mayor Michael Fougere wasn’t willing to comment on specifics, but he spoke to the importance of the city’s relationship with its staff.“We want to attract the best and brightest people here…” he said. “We also want to provide the best working environment for our staff. If they work for the City of Regina they work for the best employer in the city, as far as I’m concerned. So we want to make sure that continues.”The city is facing yet another budget crunch next year. In August, financial and corporate services executive director Barry Lacey told councillors that expenses are outpacing natural revenue growth. Salaries and benefits make up roughly 50 per cent of city spending on operations.Fougere said he doesn’t agree with the “supposition” that the city will have to rein in salary costs if it wants to keep taxes affordable. But Lucier said he expects the city to point to those pressures as a pretext for keeping increases below the rate seen in past contracts.“We kind of know that going in, with the economic environment that we’re in,” he said.Lucier said he doesn’t want to go to the table with unrealistic expectations, saying that will only drag the process out. But he said his members expect a fair offer.Despite some common concerns over pay, each union has its own unique issues. Bus drivers have been trying to get a shuttle to take them from the transit operations centre to their start points downtown.

“At this point, we’re sort of forced to use our own vehicles,” Lucier said. “It was actually brought up at a general meeting back in like 1991 or ’92, so it’s been an issue for some time.”He said there’s some indication that management is “softening” its stance on the issue. But there are other disputes to work out. He said the union has concerns over a new night shift for mechanics, saying it’s essential to “address the retention and recruitment of our mechanics” as it gets underway next year. He also noted frustrations with “horrible” eye-care benefits.“I mean, driving a bus, you kind of need vision care,” he said. “So I’m a little bit surprised that they’ve been reluctant to to improve on that”The local also feels like transit operators don’t get a “fair shake” when they file grievances through their dispute resolution process.“The deck is stacked against us,” Lucier said.He said that issue came up at the October meeting in the firefighters’ boardroom. Kotsetas told the Leader-Post that there’s no problem with the language on dispute resolution — as far as CUPE Local 21’s current agreement is concerned — though sometimes the way it’s interpreted can be an issue.

She said she doesn’t believe there are any major issues of contention between the local and management at the moment. She said the union has no indication that the city will be seeking a salary freeze.“We are optimistic that the city will continue to invest in their employees,” she wrote. “We will sit with the city and explore options that I hope will include a monetary wage / benefit increase.”Kotsetas said she hopes bargaining process will be over “as soon as possible.”

Bus drivers leaving Regina Transit at high rate, with union citing time pressures and abuse

Regina Transit is dealing with high turnover among bus drivers, leaving the department “consistently understaffed” and driving up overtime costs.

City Hall revealed the problem in its budget proposal, released Feb. 1.

The proposal said that between 25 and 30 transit operators leave every year. It takes about two months to train their replacements, forcing the department to call on other drivers to pick up the slack.

Arnie Buehler, manager of transit operations and training, said the department’s annual turnover rate — about 15 per cent of the entire staff contingent — is not uncommon for transit services in Canada.

“It’s something that we’re trying to deal with,” he said. “Whenever someone would be leaving, we would be sitting down with them and going through some of the issues they faced.”

He said most drivers are simply retiring. In 2017, the department also had eight resignations. In previous years, they’ve had as many as 18 drivers quit.

Buehler said that most leave because they find other opportunities. But Kevin Lucier, president of the union representing the operators, suspects many just get fed up with the demands of a “tough job.”

“It’s a difficult position to deal with the public, the time schedule, the road conditions, the weather,” he said. “You’re essentially a one-man team out there.”

He said drivers often don’t have sufficient time to complete their routes. He called the schedules “very tight.”“Any sort of disruption or delay out on the road is very difficult to pick up,” Lucier said. “At that point you start getting a little bit of pressure from the public because you’re late all the time — it leads to a lot of pressure.”Sometimes that pressure escalates to verbal or physical abuse.

“That is something that we deal with literally on a weekly basis, if not daily,” he said. “Everybody has a limit.”Buehler said that’s news to him. He knows that altercations happen, but doubts it’s as frequent as Lucier claims.

“In any industry you’re going to have some unsatisfied customers, but I would say we don’t have that many,” he said.He said the transit department takes safety seriously. They’ve installed cameras, provide nationally certified training and have an officer on call to deal with testy situations. He’s confident that drivers have the tools they need to de-escalate conflict.

Still, he agrees with Lucier that driving a bus can be “stressful.” Lucier said the staffing pressures got particularly bad at the end of 2017. He was pleased to see a wave of new hires in the new year, but many of those drivers are still in training; they aren’t yet able to drive a bus on their own.

He said he knows of operators who work up to 120 hours in a two-week period.

The union is calling for measures to help protect drivers from abuse. They’ve suggested installing plastic shields to protect drivers from violence, according to Lucier.

He said the city has not been receptive to the idea.

Buehler explained that shields have not proven effective in other cities where they’ve been tried. He argued that buses are safer when drivers can build relationships with passengers. Shields, he said, can get in the way.“How they actually deal and interact when you put barriers in place is almost counterproductive to what they’re trying to do,” he said.

He said Regina Transit has “come a long way” in engaging its drivers, handing out surveys and sounding them out on training and equipment. But he admits it’s a matter of “perception,” and the union might feel differently.In Lucier’s view, the city doesn’t understand the predicament drivers face out there on the streets.

“I would maybe suggest a little more compassion amongst the management team toward the members,” he said. “I know some of our members do feel sort of alone out there on the road, so a little more support there could possibly go a long way.”

Under shared funding with the federal government, the City is spending $17.2 million to expand and enhance our transit system and to make it more inclusive and accessible to all residents.

Both the City and the federal government are each contributing $8.6 million under the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund. It’s a $3.4 billion fund made available by the federal government to support municipal transit systems across Canada.

Of the $17.2 million the City is spending, $14.3 will be spent in 2017. The remaining $2.9 million will be spent in 2018.

With our transit improvements made in 2017, we better serve residents who want to take the bus now and in the future. We now have more new and reliable buses on our streets. Our transit system is also more accessible for people with low vision who can now confidently use our bus system and independently make decisions about the buses they wish to take. We’ve also installed new modern and larger bus shelters, which are benefit to everyone including people with mobility devices who can use them with more ease than our older shelters. We’ve added innovative Quantum securement technology on some of our conventional buses as well so people with mobility devices can easily and safely use the bus.

This table outlines our transit improvement projects.

We also have plans in 2018 to improve our system for people with low hearing.

Civic Pension Updates

Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Conference - 2014

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour will held its annual convention October 29th – November 1st, 2014 in Regina. Many unions, including ATU Local 588 converged on the Saskatchewan Legislature for a Defending Workers Rights rally. Regina Transit was happy to supply 7 charter buses to transport union members.

MP Ralph goodale visits Local ATU588 to speak on his bill c-533

On July 24th, we were extremly honored and happy that Mr. Goodale made the time to speak and visit Local ATU588 to discusshis introduction of Private Members' Bill C-533 which will help protect any person who serves the public against any sort of assult.

Local 588 is proud to stand behind Mr. Goodale and Bill C-533, we hope our members and everyone alike will do the same. For more information on this bill, please take the time to click the links below and read Ralph Goodale's blogs as well as view his speech introducing the Private Members' Bill.Please click to read Mr. Goodale's blog onBus driver assaults targeted in new legislation